I just got a reminder mail that the Tofu Haiku contest is in its final week! I don’t know what’ll happen after its gone, but I just noticed that tofulimerick.com seems to be available, and I hear that the tofu in Nantucket is pretty remarkable. Anyway, we tried a side-contest earlier in the campaign, but everyone got spanked by the official Tofu Haiku administrator. The good news? I don’t think he’s eligible for the real contest, so get cracking! Remember: share your haiku here if you want, but be sure to officially enter, officially.

FYI, if you’ve been wondering about the status of Peaceable Kingdom, the filmakers have a sneak preview of the new edition available. It looks like they’re making a ton of changes to the film, with a strong focus on the whole “humane farming” issue that’s been dominating (in a good way) discussions lately. There’s no word on an official release date, but they’re hoping for sometime in the fall. It’s no small effort, and if you’d like to make a donation to assist in the production, I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

The TVA has
started an awesome contest
for tofu haiku

You should enter it
daily or even faster
and win great prizes

John K Samson and
Sarah Kramer and other
people are judges

For fame and fortune
and increased sexual skill
just follow the Link.

We wrote about Peter Singer and Jim Mason’s new book The Way We Eat – Why Our Food Choices Matter a little while ago, but now the nice people in the book industry have given us a few copies. Since I’d already bought one, and since packed bookshelves don’t look as cool when they’re packed with a bunch of copies of the same book, and since I said I’d do this in the first place, it’s time for a contest! For a free hardcover copy of The Way We Eat – Why Our Food Choices Matter courtesy of the publisher (and postage by us), all you need to do with be one of the first 3 people to email us with the correct answers to the 3 questions below. Whoops, you’re too late! Congrats to TheRealPamela, Bush Eater and flutterby! If anyone else wants to enter just for the fun of it, I’ll give you $4.95 off of a t-shirt order, ’cause we gotta make room in the storage area for new crap.1) How many corporations did Singer and Mason approach for assistance in documenting how food is produced, and how many indicated that they were willing to help?
2) Approximately how many independent pig farms are currently in the USA? How many were there 30 years ago?
3) According to professor Vaclav Smil, author of Feeding The World, how much agricultural land would we need for everyone to eat as much meat as most Americans do?

Links with answers are here, here, and here.

I think I might be winning my war against my inbox, but it’s still too early to tell… Here’s one that slipped through the cracks: Breeze is looking for contributors to a new anthology titled “Sistah Vegan: Black Women on the Social Implications of Veganism.” Read on for details…Sistah Vegan Anthology Submission Guidelines:
website: http://breezeharper.tripod.com/research/sistah_vegan_anthology.html
Deadline: June 1, 2006

I am searching for Black identified sistahs that practice Veganism to share their stores in an anthology I would like to put together. I am looking for poetry, narratives, creative stories or critical essays that link veganism to ending human oppression and ecological devastation. Topics and questions to consider can include but are not limited to:

Choosing Veganism and organic fair trade consumption because of it’s links to ecological harmony.

Realizing that Veganism connected you to other holistic practices that enhanced your health and managed life-long ailments.

Connecting a memory of sexual harassment and linking it to theories of Veganism.

The pivotal moment you realized that your dietary habits potentially supported the very types of oppression you were struggling against.

Do you have any funny yet poignant stories about your friends and family’s reactions to your conversion to Veganism?

Did you grow up as a vegan?

Did you ever have to defend your veganism at you job and feel constantly offended by people who just didn’t respect it?

All stories, critical analysis, poetry, and insights all welcome for submission, along with other creative formats you feel will allow your voice to be heard. If possible, stories and essays should be no more than 15 pp double spaced with 1″
Margins. ***Please provide a short bio (No more than 1/2 page long) and contact info. Deadline is June 1, 2006. Thanks and I look forward to connecting with my Vegan Sistahs through your writing. Please send as an attachment (MicrosoftWord or Appleworks) to harper2@fas.harvard.edu or you can postal mail to me. Email me for the mailing address.

We don’t post a lot of these kind of stories, but with it being the season of blatant consumption and all, I imagine we’ll have a few recommendations posted over the next few weeks. Consider it our vegan-friendly but less attractive and poorly organized version of Cool Hunting’s Gift Guide. Anyway, the good people at Shameless Magazine are having a holiday subscription sale. This independent magazine for teenage girls is entertaining even to dirty old men like me, and they have a food column that covers the same kinds of issues we talk about here. This month only, subs are $9.99CA in Canada and $19.99CA in the USA.

This one’s primarily for people who will be in Toronto on September 10 – I’ll move it to the Toronto forum in a day or two, but I want to make sure it’s widely read… The Toronto Vegetarian Association is looking for participants in the Amazing Vegetarian Food Race, part of this year’s fab-dabulous Vegetarian Food Fair. Want a shot at cool prizes while helping out the Daily Bread Food Bank? Read on…First off, here’s the PR copy:

The 21st annual Toronto Vegetarian Food Fair, the largest of its kind in North America, is taking place this year at Harbourfront Centre on September 9, 10, and 11. The Toronto Vegetarian Association is showcasing an exciting variety of sensational vegetarian speakers, and unique vegetarian food and products. For the first time at the fair, the Amazing Vegetarian Food Race will be taking place. This will be a great way to raise money, food, and awareness for the Daily Bread Food Bank.

The Daily Bread Food Bank is more than just a food bank. They have over 30 employees and hundreds of volunteers. The Daily Bread is a busy warehouse with a responsibility for getting food to thousands of families across the GTA each week, and also to raise awareness about the issues affecting their clients. There are 175,000 people relying on food programs each month in the GTA, and 66,500 of them are children. So come out and help your fellow man/woman, and have fun doing it!

The race will be held at 1:00 pm, on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2005, at the Vegetarian Food Fair. To get involved you must be 18 years of age or older, and be in teams of two. Teams will be given donation forms, and raise money from sponsors. At the race, they will be given hints to find the correct vendors to buy products from for the food bank. Also, there will be many fun challenges that must be completed, and a designated check- point. This is a race against time, but also a game of skill, with great prizes to be won. If you are interested in competing in The Amazing Vegetarian Food Race, we will have information booths set up at Taste of the Danforth, on August 6, at 2:00; and the China Town Festival, on August 13 and 14. You can also contact Katie at admin@veg.ca.

—

I contacted Katie for more information, and here’s what else I’ve learned:

* While the event is free, you need to raise money from sponsors prior to the race ($60-100)
* Depending on the number of people involved, it should take 2-4 hours to complete.
* The event takes place at the food fair, so you don’t need a helicopter to win.
* Contestants get a t-shirt!
* Ties will be settled with veggie trivia, so remember, carrots are orange!

Once again, to get an entry form, contact Katie at admin@veg.ca.

Happy packaging reuse day! That’s probably not officially sanctioned in any country I can name, but the intarweb is supposed to be about reducing the importance of borders, plus I recently re-subscribed to Girls Are Pretty, so here we go: the kick ass ass kickers at the Post Punk Kitchen are hosting a Tofu Container Challenge! Go out and get crafty – if nothing else, you’ve got another half-baked justification for buying 20 pounds of tofu (other than it being happy buy 20 pounds of tofu day tomorrow) – who hasn’t wanted to do that? (Via the crime fighting joy that is Veg Blog)

There’s been a bit too much convergence in my readings today: Johnathan Skinner of Veggie Games made an appearance in Wired (Steer Madness won an award for innovation in audio!), and then there’s this interview with Neal Barnard of PCRM that I found by way of The Veg Blog that really wasn’t what I expected (not to spoil the surprise, but it’s not about veganism at all). It’s always nice to recognize names in the press, but when they’re vegan names, it’s so much nicer. We’re all over the place these days.

Right! You know that Peaceable Kingdom thing that everyone knows about, so I don’t need to find a link to? Well, everyone who knows about that no doubt also knows about the company’s earlier film, The Witness, and since I’ve just aptly proven (QED) that eveyone knows about this film as well, there’s no need for another link. Santa’s hung-over elves have informed me that there might still be a cluster of people who haven’t seen The Witness in the Virginia area, so they would be well advised to turn to their PBS affiliate (WCVE Richmond and WHTJ Charlottesville) at 11 PM tonight (Tuesday), when they’ll air it! I think that’s tremendously cool.